Gold refined, or, Baptism in its primitive purity proving baptism in water an holy…Gold refin'd, or, Baptism in its primitive purity proving baptism in water an holy…

Answ. What if we shall grant you that Infants are Disciples, (which we can never do, it being utterly false) yet they are not such Disciples ⟨p. 88⟩that Christ in the Commission requires to be baptized▪ because they were to be made Disciples, by being taught; and that Infants cannot be said to be, we are sure.

The Lord Jesus hath plainly excluded Infants in his Commission from this Administration, according to ordinary Rule; for in that he commands the them to Baptize Disciples, upon preaching first to them, it follows, that none but such who are so taught, and so by teaching made Disciples, are by virtue of the Commission, to be baptized; Infants, after an ordinary rate are uncapable of understanding the Gospel, when preached, and therefore are uncapable of being made Disciples thereby, and there is no other way, according to ordinary Rule, of being made Disciples but by that means: And this the Apostles could easily understand, as knowing that under the term Disciple, in common speech, and in the whole New Testament, those only are meant, who being taught, professed the Doctrine preached by such a one as John's Disciples, Christ's Disciples, and the Disciples of the Pharisees, &c. and accordingly the Apostles administered Baptism. And in that Christ appoints, these to be Baptized, we say, he excludes all others; for the Institution, Commission, and Commandment of Jesus Christ, is most certainly the only Rule, according to which we are to administer the Sacrament of Baptism, and all other Holy Things; and they that do otherwise, open a Door to all Innovations, and follow their own Inventions, and are guilty of Will-worship. If you should say, Infants are Disciples seminally in and by their Pa•ents: as if Believers could beget Believers, •or Disciples of Christ by natural Generation, is absurd and ridiculous, the Christian Church being ⟨p. 89⟩not made up of Persons by mere Humane Birth, but Spiritual Regeneration. And to say that Infants are born Disciples by the relation to the Covenant, and so have the Seal set on them, without any precedent Teaching, is but an unapproved Dictate; as if a Title to Baptism were in its Nature a Seal of the Covenant, which the Scripture no where affirms; nor is there any Rule for baptizing of Persons because of Relation to the Covenant, sith Baptism wholly depends upon a positive Institution.